Olympic Baseball Rewind: Watch Cuba vs. USA for gold at Sydney 2000 Games

Olympic Baseball Rewind: Watch Cuba vs. USA for gold at Sydney 2000 Games
03/08/2020
This international baseball clash turned into an instant classic as two powerhouses collided on the iconic Olympic stage Down Under.

The Olympic Rewind Baseball series, presented in collaboration with the Olympic Channel, gives us a chance to relive the gold medal game of the 2000 Olympics that took place in Sydney, Australia.

Cuba and the United States both finished round-robin with 6-1 records. USA's only loss in the opening round was to Cuba.

In the semi-finals, Cuba shut out Japan, 3-0, behind a majestic complete game by Jose Contreras (pictured above), while the US came from behind to beat Korea, 3-2, in a game started by future Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star Roy Oswalt.

Episode six of the series takes us to 27 September 2000. Pedro Lazo took the mound for Cuba in front of 14,107 spectators at the Sydney Baseball Stadium. Home plate umpire Anibal Rosario called 'play ball'. In the bottom half of the inning, legendary manager Tommy Lasorda handed the ball to Ben Sheets, a right hander who would be voted into the 2001 MLB All-Star Game.

OLYMPIC Rewind-Baseball

The OLYMPIC Rewind-Softball series features past games from the 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008 Games.